The current show at Argazzi Art, “Gold & Black & White,” brings together a collection of works centered around those three colors... exhibiting of painting, photography and sculpture that is well worth seeking out.

...Sculptor Lisa Breznak works with unexpected shapes and forms and on a small scale. Breznak hand forms her sculptures in her studio in Peekskill, New York, and the results are pleasingly off kilter and engaging. The works she currently has on show at Argazzi each incorporate 22 karat gold leaf, and the shining metal can suggest that one has stumbled upon a small treasure. The shapes in her “Dances for Waxing and Waning” call to mind both the structures of Japanese temples and the phases of the moon. “Pompion Prestige (Abundant Harvest)” strikes a rather different note. The abundant, swooping pile of pumpkins, a familiar site in the local area during fall, here lends itself towards some fairytale landscape. ...

Many students felt awe at the power of technology ... as they encountered works in the exhibit.Lisa Breznak’s “The New Botanicals” (Figure 5), for example, presents a ceramic display with animal DNA grafted onto plant DNA to make genetically modified food, so that nature becomes highly conceptualized and remote, tucked behind glass. ... Conventional categories of flora and fauna collide, and viewers are challenged to “hold contradiction” as they puzzle through the wonders and warnings of this compelling piece.

eScholarship University of California article by Sarah Mead Wyman, Jennifer Turner Waldo, and Dennis Doherty, all SUNY New Paltz faculty.

...Maybe it's the weirdness...."weirdness" is always a good thing in the art world. That means it's new and that's very important in art as I am sure you know.

D. Dominick Lombardi, curator, arts writer

----------------------

I have admired Lisa’s work and her dedication to and intense focus on working with miniature forms. For her, this focus works to an extraordinary degree.

I visited her installation at the Saunders Farm Project sponsored by Collaborative Concepts. It was amazing, how incredibly powerful her installation looked in this vast, open space. The piece, a running fence with wooden posts topped with her gold covered forms, was visible from over 100 feet away. With modest means and a relatively small scale, Lisa’s was the strongest piece in this exhibit of 50 site specific pieces.

Tatana Kellner, Artistic Director, Women’s Studio Workshop

---------------------

She is an accomplished sculptor currently working on a series of miniature gold ceramics. Among the group of 66 artists participating, Lisa’s work stood out for its combination of skill and unique vision.

Christa Blatchford, Program Officer, NYFA

----------------------

"Face to Face" is a large group show and not a "breeze through" show. There are numerous interesting works ranging from thought provoking to inspirational. Some are both.

Lisa Breznak's glass cabinet is full of small sculpted objects. The structure, framed by hand painted drapery, is somewhat mysterious. The whole presentation of a glassed in collection of gold and cream colored pieces that may trace the basic shapes of Scythian, Judaic or early Christian-Orthodox holy objects, framed by the the creamy cloth, gives the impression of a shrine made for prayer, housing sacred objects, like an ark holding a Torah scroll.

Artists have the power to to re-envision historical events or systems, making them come alive in our present world, as if to say: "This is the ground on which our culture stands. See it another way and the ground begins to shift, to change." Ms. Breznak sees it in another way. ...".

Art Reviews by Deborah Sherman, for Stare Mesto Noviny newspaper

-----------------------

Your "garden" is enchanting. I spent some wonderful time with your installation. The trees look so important against the ivy covered wall. I felt like each was a devotional tree that you could visit and tell your secrets to. I really do think people need them.

Dr Sherry Mayo, Director, Center for the Digital Arts, SUNY

----------------------

I am amazed by what you have done.... I am very impressed and not just a little bit jealous of your accomplishment. BRAVO! Carla Rae Johnson, Sculptor, Professor, SUNY Westchester Community College

-----------------------

Re: 2011 HFA Farm Studio Residency: I was there at the farm today ..in the pouring rain .. the interior was very compelling as was knowing more was sure to come .. I only wonder!! Then it hit me,... the intimacy of space, an implied other usage all with another sense of purpose ... inspired ..thank you Lisa!!

Simon Draper, Founder Habitat for Artists

----------------------

Sculptor/ceramist Lisa Breznak presents two superb works “Pompion Prestige” a brilliant golden mountain of pumpkins - reminiscent of a gilt bronze Tibetan Buddha - and “New Botanicals II” her plea to Mother Nature in the form of a request for protection and forgiveness for our dangerous hubris of genetic modification tinkering. These are works of great aesthetic clarity.

Mitche Kunzman, curator

-----------------------

...And your art is strange and wonderful at the same time!

John Mucciolo, curator and collector

-----------------------

"The rough and spontaneous handling of extremely thin clay, the the liberal use of pastel and bright colors, the glazed and unglazed surfaces all combine to set a subtle tension that animates the work."